... Antville.org

I got a hundred odd responses to the rediff.com article that I wrote ( If you havent read it, read it here). I am happy to find that 85 % of the people agree with my views, around 5 % agree partially and the remaining 10 % disagree. I am happy with these numbers and I can live with them.

Some are the responses, I got are :

Manoj says Hello, I cannot conceive of any more simplistic way to say GOD IS LOVE and to make a point that no religion or god ever preached fighting.

Thank you very much, Anand. Tirumal says Hi I just wanted to say that this was very powerful. How true... every word that is said in this diary... what a service of Rediff to humanity... Just keep up these standards of excellence. Just made my day.....I have printed it... saved it.. Thanks. and so on.

Some of the very negative comments include "Let us kill this guy" and "This guy is a complete failure in life" . I dont know what to say other than criticism should be directed towards what i said, not a personal attack on me.

Some of the more positive criticisms were centred around the communist idealogy and how such experiments have already failed. What I have to say here is this : Communism took away much more from a person other than his Religion. A person was stripped of all his possessions. What I was wishing for was the removal of just the religion. Maybe, that will result in a more pleasing endresult. Again, you cant suppress something. If we have to end religion, It has to be by a majority decision. Once you suppress something, it will rear its head in some form or the other. So if at all something of this happens, it has be accepted by the majority as the best way forward. I know it is wishfull thinking and that was precisely the tone in which the article was written. A wish, A hope for a better world.

My good friend, Ammu wrote in saying Man's basic nature is the problem and that has to change not religion. What I had to say to her is this : Agreed, Man's basic nature has to change. There is something of the animal left in all of us. It lies sleeping in all of us, waiting for the right amount of provocation to rear its ugly head. Religion is the one of the biggest triggers for this. There is something fundamental about Religion and God that provokes a Man more than anything else. So I suggest we take away this trigger. Hopefully, things might improve.

As usual in a debate, People agree and disagree. I am happy that i have struck a chord in many a heart and that is the good that I will carry forward from all this.

Thanks for reading.